Deutsche Bank to pay $38 million in US silver price-fixing case

Published 2:45 AM ET Tue, 18 Oct 2016
Reuters

Kai Pfaffenbach | Reuter

A woman with umbrella walks past a Deutsche Bank branch in Frankfurt, Germany, September 30, 2016.

Deutsche Bank AG has agreed to pay $38 million to settle U.S. litigation over allegations it illegally conspired with other banks to fix silver prices at the expense of investors, according to court papers filed on Monday.

The settlement, disclosed in papers filed in Manhattan federal court, came in one of many recent lawsuits in which investors have accused banks of conspiring to rig rates and prices in financial and commodities markets.

The settlement had been expected since April, though terms had yet to be disclosed. In court papers, lawyers for the investors say the deal will likely be an "ice breaker" that will serve as a catalyst for other banks to settle.

Vincent Briganti, a lawyer for the investors, said the deal provides "substantial monetary compensation plus cooperation from Deutsche Bank in the continued prosecution of this important case against the non-settling defendants."

The settlement is subject to court approval. A spokeswoman for the German bank declined to comment.

In the litigation, investors claimed Deutsche Bank, HSBC Holdings Plc and Bank of Nova Scotia (ScotiaBank) rigged silver prices through a secret daily meeting called the Silver Fix, and accused UBS AG of exploiting that fix.

The alleged conspiracy started by 1999, suppressed prices on roughly $30 billion of silver and silver financial instruments traded each year, and enabled the banks to pocket returns that could top 100 percent annualized, the investors said.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni ruled the investors had sufficiently, "albeit barely," alleged that Deutsche Bank, HSBC and ScotiaBank violated U.S. antitrust law by conspiring to depress the Silver Fix from 2007 to 2013.

But the judge dismissed UBS from the case, saying there was nothing showing it manipulated prices, even if it benefited from distortions.

Caproni at that time said the investors could amend their complaint, including against UBS, and a lawyer for the investors has said they planned to do so.